Meet the Crew of the Zoetrope!

Ah these are all so cool. Awakend animals wooooooooooo!!!!!!

wow, awesome! and thanks for following up on the early Howl

Lastly, we have the Zoetrope's accident-prone mechanic, Whose Antenna Is Askew, or Ten for short. They're a surki, a brand-new ancestry designed from the ground up for Howl of the Wild; rather appropriately so, as surkis are a subterranean people who burrow to Golarion's surface only in periodic generation digs, the most recent of which was triggered by the closing of the Worldwound. Surkis ambiently absorb magic, metamorphosing later in life with unique adaptations based on what they've absorbed. Ten is excited to experience every new thing they can on the surface, though this sometimes leads them into trouble.

I LOVE THEM ALREADY

Incredible! I love everything about this! And I'm also so, so curious about their mechanics.

Is athamaru a new name for locathah, or are they a new ancestry that happens to live alongside them in Xidao?

Either way, this is a solid selection (people will love awakened animals for sure), and I adore the crewmates (good on me for guessing Ten was a mechanic!) - Ken's concept art is always a delight, especially with all the notes.

Hnn. Cute.

Surkis are.. cicada-people?

Also, Awakened Animal confirmed. That'll make the furries happy. That's cool. Making people happy is a Good Thing. I wonder what the available size range is going to be. We'll never get the Terrible Glory Of The Barbarian Rage-Stack again, but we might be able to pretend.

Looks like Athamaru are the Totally Renamed Locathath.

It's interesting that the crew of an airship has two aquatics and no fliers. Hm.

I cannot wait to have a table full of funky little awakened animals!

No excitement, zero hype with this material, I found these new Ancestry a bit forced, centaur, minotaur and even Ariel's cousin still going, but the others... ah kinda meh... anyway, let's see the book to get a more accurate opinion. But today, it would be the Pathfinder book that I wouldn't want to own.

I'm just imaging a very whimsical party that is made up of a Poppet, a Sprite, a Leshy, and an Awakened Animal.

Bug! Bug! Bug! Bug! Bug!

No excitement, zero hype with this material, I found these new Ancestry a bit forced, centaur, minotaur and even Ariel's cousin still going, but the others... ah kinda meh... anyway, let's see the book to get a more accurate opinion. But today, it would be the Pathfinder book that I wouldn't want to own.

This is clearly the Animal People book. It was pretty much always going to be. If you aren't thrilled by the idea of playing an Animal Person? well, it might not be for you. I admit my own reaction is more a matter of mild curiosity than anything else. Like... the Surki metamorphosis thing could either be really cool or totally not my thing depending on execution.

Looks like there's a nice little block of hype coming from the people who are into that stuff, though. So hey - it's nice to see them getting theirs.

For me? Well, like I've said before - I got kineticist coming. I'm doing fine.

I love thiis

As a machinist/mechanic, I absolutely love Ten. Somebody's gotta keep that airship afloat, might as well be the Funky Bug Boi.

I wanna know more about the Surkis!

Looks like Athamaru are the Totally Renamed Locathath.

Yeah, Xidao was previously described as a city of mostly Locathahs in the Dragon Empires Gazetteer. So we got a new name for our fish people.

I want to be part of this crew!

TALKING ANIMALS TALKING ANIMALS TALKING ANIMALS

I love that a badger was chosen, too. Badgers are a super iconic "talking animal" species. The new bug-species gives me cicada vibes with their "regular emergence from underground" thing.

Also, I love the mermaid's special wheelchair looking like a seashell/pitcher plant! I adore the incredible amount of thought the artist put into costumes and gear. This is genuinely like, some of the most riveting concept art I've ever seen, and I collect The Art Of... books for fun!

My first thought was to have a Beastkin awakened animal to put an animal in your animal to have an animal squared. But then I remembered that Beastkins have to be humanoid. I hope that restriction is removed in the remaster.

It feels like "an actual talking badger" is somehow more honest than "badger-themed humanoids."

Okay, let's go over other things of note:

- Iruxi are not only bound for Player Core 2, they're getting a "remaster". I am really excited for this. I've said before that I think a Dex flaw might be more up their alley, for example, and that's looking pretty likely with our main iruxi being a kind of foppish nerd, but also? They're just a really cool ancestry, and deserve more attention. I like how they're increasingly distanced in their design from kobolds, serpentfolk, [whatever troglodytes are called now], and dragons. They're their own thing.

- I love all the non-backpack storage here. The backpack's reign of tyranny must come to an end.

- Most of these characters specifically lack weapons. Even Dr. Pom's alchemy is bomb-free. That's extremely interesting to me. They don't seem to be here to fight monsters and take their stuff, they aren't conquering the wilderness, they're exploring it. That's a really subtle but valued change: Exploration doesn't have to equal conquest. I wonder if the book will be able to offer the tools to support that kind of playstyle in-game?

- That said, if the shepherd's crook is a weapon and not just a tool, that's gonna be really handy for my sheep-beastkin shepherdess PC. She's stuck with a bo staff right now.

- The new arrows are exciting! Ranged combatants need more utility, more options outside of "shoot three times".

- I love how the mermaid is just, like, casually "disabled" (in the sense that "disability" only ever really means "not able to do what mainstream society takes for granted everyone can do"). I don't just mean the wheelchair--she also has health needs others don't, like the sponges. I feel like merfolk are going to give a lot of opportunities to tell some interesting new stories. Ramps and seaweed wraps for all!

- Merfolk have a "siren song" ability.

There is too much other cool stuff to name. I love the round mortar pouch (implying she always wants it on hand), the thought put into straps and belts, Ten being "accident-prone" and just generally adorable, Dr. Pom's little herbal flower crown, the cook's coral pipe...

Wow, love the concept of the crew!! Very interesting to see a posse of such characters!!

And the best part of the reveal, my love for the old Dromites could be fulfilled with the new Surki!!

This game is getting better and better in each release :)

awakenned animal and bugfolk. Well, howl of the wild just shot up at the hypest release of PF2 so far for me.

I love the entire crew! Amazing designs all around, and excellent equipment details. Kudos to Kent Hamilton for knocking it out of the park!

(And I can confirm as a furry that getting awakened animals does make me happy. Party's favorite NPC in Extinction Curse was one.)

Oh... this art.

Swooooon!

I love the entire crew. I love the airship. I want to adventure with them. Please... may I adventure with them? Can they take an oversized, elderly gnome along?

This is awesome, shared it with my weekly groups. I love the concept art very very much, minute attention to detail is wonderful. Such exciting choices for playable ancestries, especially uplifted animal. Beastkin is my favorite but this will likely be a close second. Thank you everyone involved!

Lythea and Merfolk in general look amazing! I love the designs popping out of this book!

I adore the mermaid wheelchair. It will be painful to wait over a year for this book to release.

Adore this entire crew, and Minotaurs are one of my longest-held desires, but Ten and the Surki have really stolen my heart!

Most of these characters specifically lack weapons. Even Dr. Pom's alchemy is bomb-free. That's extremely interesting to me. They don't seem to be here to fight monsters and take their stuff, they aren't conquering the wilderness, they're exploring it. That's a really subtle but valued change: Exploration doesn't have to equal conquest. I wonder if the book will be able to offer the tools to support that kind of playstyle in-game?

That's got me really interested too. Wild exploration rules that can make that more a focus is a welcome add to a generally combat-focused game. Yes please.

Thumbs up on the ancestries too. How long before we see an awakened raccoon inventor or gunslinger :)

I love how the mermaid is just, like, casually "disabled" (in the sense that "disability" only ever really means "not able to do what mainstream society takes for granted everyone can do"). I don't just mean the wheelchair--she also has health needs others don't, like the sponges.

It's....okay. I hope the book includes a "until next rest" version of air breathing or minor levitation (or both) though, for PCs who would rather go the path of magical rather than technological support. Speaking of which, this ancestry just cries out for caster with aqueous orb. Zooming around combat in a 10' ball of water, scooping up adversaries etc.

I wasn't sure this book was going to be for me, but now I'm certain it will be; those ancestries all sound so cool, and the characters are a delight.

My first thought was to have a Beastkin awakened animal to put an animal in your animal to have an animal squared. But then I remembered that Beastkins have to be humanoid. I hope that restriction is removed in the remaster.

I doubt it will be, given that Beastkin comes from Ancestry Guide, but I also think that having an animal who explodes into a chimera form sounds super cool and wouldn't be surprised if it became a houseruled exception to the heritage.

All of my favorite wanted ancestries seem to be among the crew of this airship. What else are we still lacking?

Huzzah! Redwall x Pathfinder in 3...2...1! Colour me excited!

They mentioned the Awakened Animal ancestry is extremely versatile. i wonder if we might see it as an ancestry that runs the gamet from tiny-large, to reflect the sizes of various animals.

Awesome work! This is the most excited I've been for a set of ancestries in a while. Been begging for Minotaur for a long while now, and it's nice to get a fairly straight forward (seeming) bug person.

I hope Awakened Animal gets some extra page space, it really seems like it'd need it. Seems like the one ancestry that could plausibly have rules for playing anywhere from tiny to large, which could be really neat!

I am very excited for any Ancestry added to the mix, and these all seem like great choices.

I'm hoping the Athamaru are in addition to Locathah, rather than a replacement or name change. The more aquatic Ancestries we have up front means more choices down the line. I'd also hate to potentially lose Paizo's take on the latter, which seem to be based on Lion Fish (which ties into my own headcanon that Xidao may be based loosely on the underwater city of Shi Cheng in China's Qiandao Lake, which is also known as "Lion City"). The Athamaru seem more reminiscent to maybe Grouper me thinks.

Minotaur are the biggest draw here for me. But I'm just as excited and interested in the rest. Especially the Surki.

They mentioned the Awakened Animal ancestry is extremely versatile. i wonder if we might see it as an ancestry that runs the gamet from tiny-large, to reflect the sizes of various animals.

Curious about this too. Also are the sizes or regular animals alterable? Irl (it's hard to tell, I could be wrong) badgers aren't that big, could we have a small sized bunny person or a medium sized cat? Going to be interesting to see what happens

I am very excited for any Ancestry added to the mix, and these all seem like great choices.

I'm hoping the Athamaru are in addition to Locathah, rather than a replacement or name change. The more aquatic Ancestries we have up front means more choices down the line. I'd also hate to potentially lose Paizo's take on the latter, which seem to be based on Lion Fish (which ties into my own headcanon that Xidao may be based loosely on the underwater city of Shi Cheng in China's Qiandao Lake, which is also known as "Lion City"). The Athamaru seem more reminiscent to maybe Grouper me thinks.

Minotaur are the biggest draw here for me. But I'm just as excited and interested in the rest. Especially the Surki.

If they are the same (which I personally suspect, but don't know for sure) then I seriously doubt that you're going to lose the Lion Fish Athamaru. It's just that Grefu doesn't happen to be from Tian Xia, and might have a different heritage, and thus looks different. Paizo does that kind of thing all the time with ancestries.

As for the name... locathath have deep history in D&D, and I'm not aware of them showing up in any pre-D&D myth or legend. As such, a name change is pretty much mandatory. Unless there's mythical background that I'm not aware of, you're not getting locathath that are called locathath out of Paizo ever again. Too high a price for basically no payoff.

If they are the same (which I personally suspect, but don't know for sure) then I seriously doubt that you're going to lose the Lion Fish Athamaru. It's just that Grefu doesn't happen to be from Tian Xia, and might have a different heritage, and thus looks different. Paizo does that kind of thing all the time with ancestries.

As for the name... locathath have deep history in D&D, and I'm not aware of them showing up in any pre-D&D myth or legend. As such, a name change is pretty much mandatory. Unless there's mythical background that I'm not aware of, you're not getting locathath that are called locathath out of Paizo ever again. Too high a price for basically no payoff.

Didn't consider the idea that the name was coined by Wizards. As long as I get to play a Liony Fish, the name doesn't really matter to me. If that is the case, which I'm leaning more towards yes now, I have to reconsider one of my guesses for the remaining Tian-Xia Ancestries.

O

- Most of these characters specifically lack weapons. Even Dr. Pom's alchemy is bomb-free. That's extremely interesting to me. They don't seem to be here to fight monsters and take their stuff, they aren't conquering the wilderness, they're exploring it. That's a really subtle but valued change: Exploration doesn't have to equal conquest.

You're right exploration, doesn't need to equal conquest. However when one is exploring a new land, one must expect new threats that one simply can not reason with (Owlbears come to mind) and defensive measures would be required, even if they are non-lethal or more of an incapacitation-style armament.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing how our intrepid explorers will defend themselves from the wild lands that they are exploring.

I adore the mermaid wheelchair. It will be painful to wait over a year for this book to release.

The wheelchair gives me ideas for my sacred nagaji...

I'm hoping the Athamaru are in addition to Locathah, rather than a replacement or name change.

I'm pretty sure it's a name change since locathah is a D&D and thus probably an OGL term. Plus they do resemble each other and originate from the same city, so I'm almost positive that they are one and the same.

pixierose wrote:

They mentioned the Awakened Animal ancestry is extremely versatile. i wonder if we might see it as an ancestry that runs the gamet from tiny-large, to reflect the sizes of various animals.

Curious about this too. Also are the sizes or regular animals alterable? Irl (it's hard to tell, I could be wrong) badgers aren't that big, could we have a small sized bunny person or a medium sized cat? Going to be interesting to see what happens

Also interesting to see how they deal with flying, burrowing and aquatic/amphibious animals.

Really, "furry" just means "enjoying the aesthetic of animal-people". It's a broader term than most people realize.

Kent Hamilton smashed it out the park again!!

Intensely excited, merfolk and awakened animals are something I've wanted for a long time and I adore the detail of the Surki only recently reemerging with the closing of the worldwound!

I also hope the Athamaru exist alongside the Locathah even if the latter needs a name change, i loved their 2e design.